This is a portrait of Marge Simpson I did for a friend's birthday present. It took about 10-15 hours... I didn't count. There is about 30 yards of embroidery floss in the hair alone. The hair is about 90% punchneedle embroidery, 7% bullion stitch, and 3% French knots. At first I wanted to do all French knots... ambitious, right? Then I decided to do bullion stitch and out of desperation scoured the internet to find PUNCHNEEDLE EMBROIDERY. Which I now love!

The necklace is made with coral beads. This wasn't my first time to embroider, but it was the first time to do anything other than what I would call "doodle" embroidery. I learned a lot about the satin stitch... like don't use all six threads.

The outline is done in backstitching.

I bought the frame/mat board at a local thrift store for about 25 cents. I spray painted the frame and painted the mat board with acrylic paint.

And a picture of the back for good measure

Thanks for looking at my first post EVER! Comments and Critiques/Advice is very much welcome!

She looks amazing! I know nothing about punchneedle, time to google! Also, your satin stitching looks impeccable, got anytips to share how you got her skin so smooth?

Thank you! You can find punchneedles in various sizes at most craft stores. There are even punchneedles for making rugs! I did backstitching under the satin stitch to give her more dimension. My best advice would be to use maybe 1-3 threads rather than all six like I did for most of it. I had to do a lot of correcting to get it smooth.